4 Business Lessons I Learnt From A Physically Challenged Man
By Johnspeak Uwangue (Motivational Speaker, Talent and Life Coach)
I rarely share this part of my life, not that I don't want to, but because I used to think that it wasn't time not until yesterday. I'm a very private person who seldom speak in the midst of people that I am not too familiar with. Instead of talking, I always prefer keeping mute in order to learn one or two lessons from their conversations.
After leaving my home town for Lagos, I found myself in conditions that I wasn't used to and wasn't prepared for. After stepping my foot in Lagos after being told by God to leave my home state and go to my Canaan, which I later discovered to be Lagos, I met a physically challenged shoe Cobbler whom God used to provide me succor at that point in time. I was so fascinated by his business model that I decided to take my time to study and learn from him.
This man is a very popular and semi successful businessman who earns a very reasonable amount of money on a daily basis that most top business executives doesn’t. After staying with him for almost a month, I got fascinated by his business model that I asked him to teach me how to be a successful businessman. After much pestering and humility, he finally opened up and told me and I want to share just four out of the twenty I wrote down.
Your Location Determines Your Earnings
I have heard so many entrepreneurs and business owners say that location doesn't matter when it comes to business. I Learnt from my physically challenged friend that location does matter. For instance, it will be very difficult to sell a house located in somewhere like ikorodu in Lagos for N100 million naira, but if that same house is located in a place like Victoria Island, it'd be sold for more. I Learnt that if I am looking for quantity then, the location of my business may not matter but if profit is what I want, then location does matter. Due to the location of the business of my physically challenged friend, I noticed that his customers were paying him a lot of money just for minor repairs of their shoes that an average Nigerian complaining about the economic situation of the country will not dare to pay. Everyday, I saw him go home with huge amounts of money just from few transactions.
Your Taste Determines Your Location, Clients and Earnings
Despite being challenged physically, he still had taste. There were jobs he turned down or gave to some other people to do, not because he couldn't do them but because they didn't meet his taste. I never saw him patronize anyhow food vendors, and he never went below his standard. I Learnt from my physically challenged friend that if I intend to earn big, or attract high paying clients, I must work on my taste.
Competence + Character - Smartness = Bankruptcy
What this means is that as a business person you need to be smart. I saw my physically challenged friend charge his clients very high for his service only to employ the service of a fulani 'shoe Cobbler' for the job. Normally, a shoe Cobbler would charge very little for that job, but because of the smartness of my friend, I saw him make a lot of profits from his business. Using the service of a fulani shoe cobbler didn't reduce the quality of service because most of those shoes cobblers are more talented than his own apprentices working with him. By being smart, he was able to do much and better jobs and also made very high profit from his business. Being smart is simply about being able to recognize and take advantage of opportunities.
Location + Competence + Smartness - Devourers = Bankruptcy
After studying him, I discovered that despite all the money he was getting, he still was finding it difficult to grow his business to the level he wanted. There were so many things like gambling, drinking, womanizing, etc devouring his money. He actually said to me "Johnspeak, there is money in Lagos and you can make it here if only you can avoid alcoholism, womanizing, gambling and partying." So many people are heavily indebted
